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November Monthly Review

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November Monthly Review

Technology Association of Oregon

December 06, 2018

Skip Newberry, President & CEO

Despite the Thanksgiving holiday, November was a busy month starting with the third Cyber Oregon Cyber Security Summit of 2018, which took place in Bend. The Summit featured an update from the Oregon Cyber Advisory Council and it's work to develop tools, training, and services for under-resourced people and organizations in Oregon, as well as panels featuring local small businesses and education institutions describing their cyber security needs.

Finally, the event concluded with a panel of cyber security thought-leaders talking about trends and strategies for cyber prevention in 2019. We have a lot more cyber security programming planned for 2019, including summits focused on small businesses, school districts, and state and local government audiences, as well as some larger-scale conferences.

In addition to Cyber Security, you can check out all of our 2019 programming and sponsorship opportunities here. After a successful Blockchain Summit and Hackathon at Intel last month, we are working with number of partners to develop a whole series of Blockchain events in 2019, so stay tuned.

In November we also held our annual TAO Board Retreat, and we have a lot of exciting programming and initiatives that we will be rolling out in the next couple of months. I encourage you to attend our 2019 Kick-Off Event at the Iron Fireman Building on January 24th to learn more about these initiatives and connect with our Board, volunteers, and members.

Following on the heels of a number of successful policy roundtables on the "Future of Work" with leaders from the Oregon Legislature, the Governor's Office, and Oregon's new Labor Commissioner, we announced the development of a Future of Work Guidebook that will identify drivers of technological change, high-growth tech occupations, as well as those tech occupations that are ripe for disruption and displacement. This document will also showcase the people, companies and programs in the region that are offering training and educational resources to students and professionals and the thought-leaders behind innovative new approaches to skills development. If you are interested in contributing to this initiative, please contact Theresa Jelderks at theresa.jelderks@techoregon.org.

November was an incredibly eventful month in the southern Willamette Valley. Members of the local tech industry highlighted the positive outcomes in our community that have come from Hack for a Cause, providing tech enablement for organizations including the NAACP, Parenting Now!, Egan Warming Centers and more. TAO also continued to increase regional talent retention, by way of Experience Oregon Tech. Participating companies in the most recent experience included Palo Alto Software, IDX Broker, and CBT Nuggets. In December, construction continues for Oregon’s Digital Town Square, with a target to begin offering Internet Exchange services in Q1 of 2019.

Central Oregon had a successful Cybersecurity Summit on Nov. 7 with amazing speakers and excellent conversations and connections being made. Our first cohort of Apprenti Software Developers graduated from the training portion on November 16 and began their apprenticeships with Five Talent and CBT Nuggets. We are beginning the candidate vetting process now along with signing up hiring partners. If you are a company east of the Cascades is interested in learning more, please contact me now. Between all the Ugly Sweater and holiday parties, TAO will be well represented in Central Oregon this year!